29 October 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described India and Africa as bright spots
of hope and economic opportunity and offered technology and credit in an
effort to match rival China's influence over the continent at a summit
with more than 40 African leaders Thursday.

As Modi opened the meeting in the Indian capital, he said Africa was now more settled and stable and "its initiatives are replacing old fault lines with new bridges of reforms and economic integration."

Kasthuri Munirathinam, a 55-year-old mother of four from southern India,
was plunged into debt after borrowing money to marry off her daughters.
Like many before her, she was recruited through an agency and promised
an opportunity to earn 1,000 Saudi riyals ($267) a month by working as a
live-in maid in Saudi Arabia, the Arab region's largest economy where
domestic help is in high demand.

On Sept. 29, just a few weeks after arriving in the kingdom, she tried to escape from her employer's house, using two of her saris to fashion a rope and climb from a third-floor window.